DNA photographer celebrated after car crash tragedy

Two months after he died in a car crash, the work of a photographer behind the famous portrait of researchers who discovered DNA has gone on show.rnrnPicture credit: Copyright, Estate of Antony Barrington-Brown

Two months after he died in a car crash, the work of a photographer behind the famous portrait of researchers who discovered DNA has gone on show.

Antony Barrington-Brown and his wife Althea died near their home in Warminster, Wiltshire on 24 January, reportedly in a head-on collision with a truck.

Before he died, Barrington-Brown donated 240 of his portraits to the National Portrait Gallery in London, which has selected 15 for an exhibition of 1950s portraits.

At the time of his death the photographer had been working with the gallery on the display.

Among the images is Barrington-Brown?s 1953 portrait of James Watson and Francis Crick, shortly after they had discovered the structure of DNA. The picture shows them alongside their DNA double helix model.

Barrington-Brown captured the image at the Cavendish laboratory in Cambridge to accompany an article for Time magazine.

?Although not published at the time the photograph became well-known following its reproduction in Crick?s memoir The Double Helix (1968),? said a gallery spokesperson.

Barrington-Brown, also an accomplished filmmaker, was awarded an FRPS by the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) in 2003.

Speaking shortly after his death, the RPS published the photographer?s account of how the DNA image came about.

?An undergraduate friend of mine, aspiring to be a journalist, sought out stories on his own account.

?One day he gave me a tip-off that someone at the Cavendish Laboratory had made an important discovery, so could I take a picture to go with his story, which he wanted to offer to Time magazine?

?So? I set off on my bicycle towing a two-wheeled trolley which carried my tripods and lights.

?I dragged the trolley up two flights of stairs and knocked at the door of one of dozens of similar rooms where research students worked.

?I was affably greeted by a couple of chaps lounging at a desk by the window, drinking coffee.?

Cambridge Connections: Photographs by Antony Barrington-Brown (1927-2012) runs at the National Portrait Gallery until 16 September.

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